We're Not Tough Enough for Maxim

Magazine Ad Makes Monkeys of Editors

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- When Maxim alerted us to a super-tough ad in the upcoming October issue, our curiosity was piqued -- and not just because the ad was for "The Condemned," starring Stone Cold Steve Austin ("10 People Will Fight ... 9 Will Die.") While I'm certainly bumping that one up to the top of the Netflix queue, it was Maxim's claim that the ad couldn't be destroyed that caught our attention. Appearing in "The Tough Issue," which hits newsstands Sept. 20, the ad is supposedly printed on special tough-guy paper and can't be torn or ripped by mere mortals.

Well, here at Adages we weren't about to let such a claim go untested. So Ad Age Editor Jonah Bloom and I pitted manhood and dignity against a magazine ad. The results were entirely predictable.